


Bad Relationships

by fireweed15



Category: Class of the Titans
Genre: Brotp, Community: hc_bingo, Gen, Platonic Male/Male Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-28
Updated: 2014-06-28
Packaged: 2018-02-06 13:22:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1859565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fireweed15/pseuds/fireweed15
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The difference between the opinion of someone who hadn’t been there and someone who had was vast.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bad Relationships

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Round 5 of the Hurt / Comfort Bingo - Estrangement

Neil’s last words to the group were, “If anyone needs me, I’ll be on the roof.”  
  
That alone meant that no one would be bothering him up there. Jay had started the trend of using the dorm’s roof as a quiet place—a sanctuary, a place to think things over… Then Archie had started to, as well. Then Theresa, and Herry and soon enough—it was where one went when the pressure of being not only a teenager, but a teenager descended from legend and tasked with saving the freaking universe got to be too much to bear.  
  
When one said, “I’ll be on the roof,” they said, “Leave me to my thoughts.” And at present, after the phone call he’d just gotten? Neil had a lot of thoughts through which to sort.  
  
The first thing he noticed when he closed the rooftop door behind himself was the way the October sun warmed his face, and the light breeze. The second thing he noticed was that he was not alone on this rooftop. As the door clicked shut, the body sitting in one of the longue chairs turned before giving him a nod of acknowledgment. “Hey Neil.”  
  
 _Oh hell_ , just what he  _didn’t_  need. “Hi Archie,” he greeted. “I didn’t know you were up here—do you want me to go?”  
  
"If you want to stay up here, you can," Archie replied. "Or I can find somewhere else to go."  
  
"You don’t need to do that," Neil said dismissively, even though part of him wished he  _would_  leave. He crossed the rooftop to stand at the one of the empty lounge chairs next to Archie. “Do you mind?”  
  
"Go ahead," Archie answered, his eyes back on the thick book in his hands. When he looked up at Neil, he was grinning mischievously. "If you get too annoying, I can just smack you with this." He mimed slapping Neil in the arm with the book.  
  
Neil offered a small smile and a half-hearted chuckle as he dropped into the seat next to the other teen. “Whatcha reading?” he asked, drawing his legs up onto the seat.   
  
” _A Clash of Kings,_ " Archie replied, turning the book to expose the front cover.  
  
"That’s a good book," Neil offered, folding his hands over his stomach and looking up at the passing clouds. It was certainly one of the few he’d enjoyed reading, and that was before HBO got its hands on it.  
  
"I’m enjoying it," Archie commented by way of agreement.  
  
"Wait…" Neil turned his head to look at Archie. "I thought you only read poetry."  
  
"I thought you only read  _People_ ,” Archie retorted coolly.  
  
Neil quirked an eyebrow, but he did nod in agreement. “You got me there.”    
  
Something that might have been a smirk briefly touched Archie’s face before he spoke once more, his eyes never straying from the page. “So what’s got you on the roof?”  
  
"Who said I’m up here for a reason?" Neil asked, turning his gaze back to the sky, his tone glib.  
  
"No one," Archie conceded. He looked over at Neil, his finger marking his place on the page. "Then again, you usually only come up where when Herry’s up here or you’re pissed, and I don’t see Herry."  
  
"Who gave you permission to be a smarty pants?" Neil pressed.  
  
"It’s what I do," the other replied. "So what’s got your panties in a twist?"  
  
"I got a phone call I didn’t want," Neil admitted, his fingers twisting nervously in his lap.  
  
” _GQ_  doesn’t want you as their cover boy?” Archie asked, crossing his legs, his braced right one over the left, at the ankles and snuggling down into the seat, as if settling in for the long haul.  
  
"No," Neil replied with a self-depreciating chuckle. "My, uh… my dad got my phone number, and he called me."    
  
Here, Archie’s fingers paused as they turned a page, and he looked over at Neil with an expression almost like… surprise. “…Yeah?” he finally pronounced, tucking a strip of torn newspaper between the pages and closing the book. “What’d he want, to invite you over for Thanksgiving?”    
  
"Yeah, actually," the other confirmed. He thought back to the conversation, and the corners of his mouth turned down sharply. "Yeah, he calls me and goes, ‘Hey Neil! I know I wasn’t there for  _any_  of your childhood or when your mama got leukemia or when she died or when you were being shuffled off to some distant cousin’s house until you made it big, but I’m here now and I’d  _love_  it if you came to Memphis for Thanksgiving with me!’”  
  
Perhaps he was being overly bitter about a simple phone call, but there wasn’t exactly a great relationship between him and his father—maybe Neil could have forgiven him for deciding to flake on his pregnant girlfriend. Maybe Neil could have forgiven him for washing his hands of the newborn Neil Alexander Cole. Maybe he could have forgiven him for the nineteen years of non-acknowledgment. But when it came to Mama, and to the eighteen months of fighting she put in before she died? Against his better judgment, Neil ground his teeth—he could never forgive him for that. Completely lost in his bitterness, Neil almost missed what Archie said next—  
  
"What’d you tell him?"    
  
Neil drew a deep, shuddering breath and let it out. “I said I’d think about it.”  
  
"Are you actually going to go?" Archie asked, swinging his legs off the chair to sit upright, facing Neil fully now.    
  
"No," the blond replied, shaking his head. "He never wanted to see me, so why should I want to see him?"    
  
"Fair point," Archie noted, shrugging slightly.  
  
Neil’s brow furrowed and he looked over at Archie. For the first time in a situation outside of a skirmish with Cronus or an argument, Archie’s expression of surprisingly serious, and he looked at least five years older. (There too, Neil could pick out the start of worry lines on the other teen’s face, and he resisted the urge to point them out.) “…That’s all you have to say about it? ‘Fair point?’”    
  
Archie shrugged again. “What do you want me to say? You don’t want see your old man, you don’t  _have_ to see him.” He put his book on the chair next to him, turning his complete attention on Neil. “You’re what, nineteen? He’s not your boss.”    
  
Neil nodded in understanding before turning toward Archie, if only to pay him the same respect. “What would you have said in my place?” he asked quietly.  
  
“‘Fuck off,’” he replied instantly.  
  
"Seriously?" Neil was no stranger to hearing Archie use some rather choice words on people for whom he didn’t care, but nothing as powerful as  _that_.  
  
"Yeah," the other confirmed. "As soon as he said, ‘Archie, it’s your dad’—’fuck you’ and hang up." Of course Archie would have likely considered changing his name and moving to Nepal to prevent the incident from happening again…  
  
If Neil was aware of this emotional quandary, he didn’t give an indication. “The rest of the guys say I should give him a shot,” he admitted. “ _That’s_  why I’m up here.”  
  
Archie nodded, almost sagely. “Well they all have decent relationships with their fathers,” he announced, and all of them did (save perhaps Herry, but there too he’d expressed at an interest in at least  _meeting_  his old man). “I don’t think they’d get it unless they’d  _been there_. Coming from someone who  _has_ —” He pointed at Neil—”you’re in the right.”  
  
A thin smile touched Neil’s features, and he offered Archie a sidelong glance. “Thank you.”  
  
Archie’s response was to wave the words aside as he picked up his book once more. “I don’t get mushy and philosophical for just anyone, y’know.” He crossed his legs and settled into his chair. “Just the close friends.”  
  
Neil chuckled again, this time with a little more humor, before turning his gaze back to the sky. He was still irritated, but knowing someone understood why helped, at least. 


End file.
